Three postdoctoral scholars have been awarded this year's Postdoctoral Leadership award for providing outstanding academic leadership and making a meaningful impact on their academic department, the UTM campus, and the wider community.
Postdoctoral Leadership Award Winners
Damien Boorman
The Martin Pain Lab
- Created NeuroBriefer, a globally used platform that automates article discovery and enables shared research curation across labs.
- Expanded research infrastructure by introducing advanced methods (e.g., DeepLabCut, miniscope imaging) and training both lab members and external researchers.
- Led mentorship and collaboration through hands-on trainee development and major cross-institutional and international research partnerships.
Diana Peragine
Biopsychosocial Investigations of Gender Lab
- Built cross-institutional research and training networks with by establishing cross-institutional partnerships and integrating students into publishable neuroimaging projects through hands-on mentorship.
- Secured funding for community-building initiatives by raising roughly $40,000 to create awards, conferences, and outreach programming (e.g., Hottest Paper Award, 3MT, trainee-led events) that strengthened collaboration across labs.
- Led major outreach and mobilization efforts by organizing large-scale public and academic engagement initiatives (e.g., SEXposium, seminar series, media outreach), that connected researchers with broader audiences.
Meredith Swartwout
The Murray Lab
- Led campus conservation efforts by implementing measures (e.g., migration road closures, amphibian fencing) to protect endangered salamanders while integrating conservation into campus operations.
- Built inclusive training communities through large student and volunteer teams and mentoring trainees with hands-on undergraduate research projects.
- Advanced public engagement and collaboration through “Salamander Saturday” and organizing a national conference workshop that connected researchers and the public.
Special Recognition
The awards committee wishes to recognize the following scholars for their exceptional contributions:
Praveen Khatri
The Phillips Lab
Demonstrated leadership in mentorship and research training; supported PSNA’s Young Members Committee through event planning, outreach, and social media promotion; and advanced scientific communication as an Assistant Feature Editor for Plant Physiology.
Jiali Song
Applied Perception and Psychophysics Lab
Provided high-level research opportunities to Black high school students and gathered data from 600+ students to support campus diversity and inclusion initiatives.